58. Affection and Infection
Bonny woke up to someone knocking on the door. She was bone tired and had just had the weirdest dream.
The door creaked and Bonny cracked open her eyes to see Eloisss poke her head in, look around, then withdraw and shut the door.
“We sshould sstay out.” Eloisss’ voice was slightly muffled through the door.
“Is Bonny ok, nya?” Miu sounded concerned.
A moment later, the door opened again. Miu peeked in, then ducked out and closed it softly.
“You’re right, nya. Let’s tell the others she’s still busy.”
Bonny opened her eyes and looked around the room. Everything was soaked. Even her fur was wet and matted. Milk dripped from the bunk above her.
Maybe, last night wasn’t a dream? Could someone get drunk on fresh milk?
She had a hazy memory of learning a new spell and using it to stay awake and energetic all night. Also something about Bess and Clara using a racial skill to start lactating for her as well as Nellie spraying all three of them when her breasts were engorged and painful.
She should probably check. “Status: Skills!”
Skills:
Create Water (all)
Mending (all)
Pain Management (all)
Panacea (all)
Sacrifice (demonic)
Spirit Triage (divine)
Triage (all)
Ward (all)
Wound Transfer (demonic)
Non-Class Skills:
Invigorate (arcane, divine)
It was there. Well, it probably wasn’t the worse skill she could have taken, even if the non-class category meant it would use additional mana. She would keep it for now and figure things out later. She activated her cleansing aura, expanding it to cover the room.
“Bonny? Are you awake?” A high squeaky voice asked from beside her.
Bonny rolled over to find Bess lying there. The bed squelched as she moved. “No, not really. What happened? Did someone bring alcohol?”
“No liquor, just you.” Bess laughed. “Your friends weren’t lying when they said things are crazy around you.”
Bonny turned to find Nellie and Clara spooning on the other bed. Nellie was the big spoon and had one hand cupped around Clara’s udder. “Are they …?”
“We talked after you fell asleep. We’re going to form a throuple and sell our milk together. We would all like to go with you, too. Colette can easily hire new people to help manage the farm.”
Bonny smiled sadly and shook her head. “Sorry, no. I like you, but that’s not a good idea. At least for now.”
“Aww, okay. We knew it wasn’t likely. You’re always welcome to stay with us, when you’re available.”
“Thank you.” Bonny paused and thought about meeting the cow girls, just a day and a half earlier. “You’ve changed. You were too shy to talk when I met you, and now you’re asking about traveling with me.”
“Is that okay? Your enthusiasm and acceptance of our, uh, abnormalities, helped both Clara and me with our self image.” Bess leaned in and kissed Bonny, needy and demanding.
It was a few minutes before they broke apart and got up. Nellie and Clara got up as well. Most of the dampness had already evaporated under Bonny’s purification aura.
Bess and Clara both insisted on Bonny sampling their new milk, from both breast and udder. Their breast milk was sweeter than Nellie’s and their udder milk creamier, but both were thick and salty with colostrum.
“We’ll have to start milking several times a day, but we’ll save it for you.” Clara explained. “Our first milk is special for the first few days.”
“For you.” Bess smiled shyly and reached for Nellie’s hand. “And some for Nellie, if you don’t mind.”
Bonny laughed. “Of course. Congratulations. I hope everything works out. I’m glad this was a good first experience and you’re all happy.” She patted each of them on the head.
Nellie stepped forward and kissed Bonny. “We are. Thank you. For everything.”
Bonny verified the room was clean, then they dressed and left the room to find Kanae curled up in front of the door. She whined until Bonny picked her up and squeezed her tight, while they walked into the center of the warehouse. The rest of the party was there, helping Colette with the cattle.
Everyone smiled knowingly, but no one made fun of them. The cow girls stayed quiet, shy under the attention, but joined in the work.
Bonny pulled Eloisss and Freja aside after a few minutes. “I need to start learning how to use Justice's sword, can you two teach me?”
Freja took the lead and showed her a series of exercises and sword forms. Eloisss contributed as well, but the lamia fighting style was too dependent on their mobility. The standardized guard training that Freja was familiar with was good enough, at least for the basics.
At noon, they left for the council building. Eloisss, Freja, Kanae, and Miu all went together, partly for protection against cultists and assassins. Bonny wore her armor under the robe, but none carried weapons.
The council clerk turned them away, again promising to take their message to the chairman. He frowned at the group, eyeing Bonny’s robes as if he didn’t believe she deserved them.
“Well, that could have gone better.” Bonny followed Freja toward the Healer’s temple. “After this, we should go to the mage tower and ask about the artifact. Freja, can you get some practice swords?”
“Yes. I still need to get my stuff from the barracks anyway. I can do that while you talk to … to them.” She pointed at the tower on the other side of the plaza with a clear tone of dislike.
The bald priest met them at the door to the Healer’s temple again, but this time, he was more accepting. “Good afternoon, Priestess Bonny. We have asked several patients to wait for you.”
He let them into the large room again, where several people were standing or sitting. Three women were dressed somewhat provocatively and sitting away from the rest of the line.
“I’m sorry for how I treated you yesterday. Please allow me to start again, I am Rafael.” He bowed slightly. “There are only three of us with the ability to use healing magic and we cannot keep up with the sick and wounded. We have several acolytes who use herbs and bandages to treat those who they can.”
Bonny looked around to see a couple of women in Healer robes at one end of the room near a case filled with supplies.
Rafael continued, “There seems to be a disease affecting certain women that we are having trouble controlling. It is resisting our healing, both mundane and arcane.”
“The women sitting separately?” Bonny studied them from a distance. “I’ll check them after everyone else. Is there a private room you can move them to?”
Rafael nodded. “Yes. Thank you for giving us your time and mana.”
“You’re welcome. I’m happy to help.” Bonny smiled and starting working her way through the line as the priest led the women out of the room.
Most of the rest of the party stayed near the entrance, watching the plaza, looking for groups of suspicious people. All except for Freja, who had left when Bonny started work, and Kanae, who followed Bonny, often winding between her feet and almost tripping her.
“Kanae, if you do that one more time, I’m going to leash you and tie you up outside.”
The fox whined.
“No arguments.” Bonny pointed to the door. “Go. Stay with Miu until I’m done.”
Kanae slunk over and lay down, but kept close watch on Bonny.
Bonny went through the line quickly. Triage and Mending taking care of the majority of injuries, with an occasional panacea. Only one man needed a Divine Mending, due to an accident while loading a barge. Without magic, he would have lost his arm.
Once done, Bonny went back to pick up Kanae. “I’m going to take some of your mana, okay?” She was starting to feel lightheaded due to mana usage, even with the expanded mana pool and control due to the practice and training on the trip out of the forest.
Kanae nodded and licked Bonny’s face.
Bonny thought the spell, not wanting to vocalize a Demonic working in the temple. “Sacrificial Restore, Mana!” Power flowed into her, pulled from the fox.
“Thank you, Kanae. I’ll give you a reward tonight. Spiritual Triage!” Bonny checked Kanae to see the black corruption still threaded through the fox’s spirit. “No sex though, until you’re better.”
Kanae whined again and Bonny gave her a tight hug before setting her back down. “Wait here, while I talk to the three women.”
Rafael pointed to a door just visible in the hallway toward Castor’s office. “In there.”
She thanked him and entered the room to find the three women sitting in chairs and an empty bed to one side. One was human and the other two were animal kin, a beaver and a ferret. She smiled at them as she shut the door. “Hi, I’m Bonny.”
The beaver kin spoke up. “I’m Kama. These are two of my girls, Nahia and Tamanna. They both have a vaginal infection that the priests can’t seem to heal.”
“Your girls? Triage!” Bonny examined the two. Both seemed to be in their late teens. The human was very pale, with dark eyes. The ferret was proportioned slightly differently from the other animal kin Bonny had seen, with a longer torso and neck, and smaller arms and legs. She was a light gray with darker gray fur on her limbs. Triage revealed a dark red and green glow around their groin, that needed more detail. “Spiritual Triage!”
Kama explained while Bonny did her examination. “I own a brothel near the docks. I have nine women that work for me. Several have gotten this infection, but these two are the worst. We think it came in with some boatmen a week or two ago.”
Bonny hadn’t been sure the spiritual triage skill would be useful beyond whatever was wrong with Kanae, but she was suddenly glad she had it. The red and green glow was threaded with black ethereal veins under her spiritual sight. Bonny held up a hand and interrupted Kama. “Can one of you strip and get on the table, please?”
The human, Nahia, did as asked and Bonny looked her over. The woman’s vulva was red and swollen, with open, oozing sores. Under Bonny’s spiritual sight, the black lines radiated out and connected the open wounds. Bonny gently parted Nahia’s labia and checked inside, to find her vagina was raw and stuck together.
Nahia gasped at the pain and Bonny reacted almost immediately,
“Pain Management!” A small dial appeared as part of her visualization of the spell and she quickly dropped it to zero. “I’ll try to cure you in a minute, but I want to check something first. That should help with any pain or discomfort.”
Bonny looked over at the ferret woman, then crossed the room and nullified her pain as well. She paused on the way back to the table. “Recovery, is this demonic? Is Pestilence behind it?”
The little goddess appeared on Bonny’s shoulder, but a glance around showed the three women weren’t aware of her. “I believe so.”
“Can I cure it?”
“Yes, but it will be difficult. Especially at this stage. You can heal the symptoms easily, but the underlying disease will require multiple treatments over several days.”
“Will it be contagious between treatments or just when there are open wounds?”
“Contagious. Sexually transmitted only. You should be in no danger.”
Bonny addressed the women, who seemed unaware of the conversation Bonny had just had. “I will do what I can, but this will require multiple treatments. Can I come by the brothel tomorrow?”
“Yes.” Kama nodded.
“Do you use any type of protection? Condoms or dams?”
“No. We have skills to prevent pregnancy.”
“I mean for disease. Is that not usually a concern?”
Kama waved at the room. “We come here when we get sick. Isn’t that why you’re here?”
“Oh. Right. Sorry, I’m not from around here.” Bonny sighed and went to work. “Divine Mending! Divine Panacea!”
The wounds closed and the swelling decreased under the divine energy, but it still remained. Still looked painful. Bonny checked inside to see Nahia’s vagina was still raw as well.
She slipped two fingers inside and cast again, directing the healing magic to where the infection was the worst, “Divine Panacea! Divine Mending!”
When she checked again, there was more improvement. Spiritual Triage showed the black lines had shrunk. Casting cure, then heal, seemed slightly more effective, eliminating some of the disease, then healing what it had ravaged.
Bonny already felt lightheaded from mana use and decided she probably hadn’t fully recovered from the night prior. She went to the door and cracked it open to peak outside. “Kanae, can you come help?”
The fox jumped up and scampered over, slipping in through the partially open door. Bonny didn’t want to open it wider and expose Nahia to anyone walking by. Once Kanae was in, Bonny closed it.
“I need to use your mana again. Is that ok?”
Kanae nodded and jumped into Bonny’s arms.
“Is she …?” Kama started to ask, looking at the three wagging tails.
“Kanae is a kitsune, but prefers her fox form. She’s been alone for a long time and rarely takes a kin form. She has a lot of mana and can transfer it to me when needed.”
The fox yipped and Bonny squeezed her tight as she silently triggered "Sacrificial Restore - Mana!" She quickly followed it with "Invigorate!" on herself. This was turning into a long day already.
It took three more cure and heal paired casts for Nahia, then four for Tamanna. Divine healing was more draining than arcane and Bonny had to pull mana from Kanae several times.
When Bonny finished, the swelling and most of the visible signs of the disease were gone. However, corrupted black lines still showed up to spirit sight.
“That should do it for now. I’ll come to the brothel tomorrow and check everyone. If you’re going to have sex, please use some sort of protection beyond skills. At least for now.”
“Thank you, Priestess Bonny.”
Bonny left the room and rejoined her friends on the temple steps. Rafael was there as well. “The disease is more serious than expected. They’ll require multiple treatments, so I offered to visit the brothel tomorrow and check everyone.”
“I’m ssure you’ll check them out.” Eloisss teased. “Iss that what took sso long in the private room?”
“Uh, no?” Bonny laughed. “I was so focused on the disease that I didn’t really look at them as sexy women. It’s probably for the best, really. There are too many of you already. I don’t need anyone else in the harem.”
Kanae yipped in agreement.
“You have a harem?” Rafael growled. “That is not how a priest of the Healer should behave.”
Bonny laughed. “You may want to pray about that. Recovery seems happy to be part of it.”
“Blasphemy!”